Quick Facts
Biography
Dr. Annavarapu Ramaswamy (born 23 March 1926) is an Indian Classical Carnatic Violin Vidwan and Guru, whose musical journey entered into 9th decade. He is in the fourth line of direct disciples in guru shishya parampara of the Saint Thyagaraja and is a disciple of Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu. M.Balamuralikrishna and Annavarapu learned carnatic music under Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu. He accompanied carnatic musicians such as, Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu, M.Balamuralikrishna, Arayakudi Ramanuja Iyyengar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, G.N.Balasubramaniam, Semmamgudi Srinivasa Iyer, T.R.Mahalingam, S.Balachandar and Hindustani Musicians - Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Bhimsen Joshi, Jasraj on national and international venues. He invented new Ragas & Talams such as Vandana Ragam, SriDurga Ragam and Tinetradi Tala and Vedadi Tala. He is teaching students at free of charge. He gave lectures on music in countries such as USA, Canada, European Countries (UK, France, etc.) and Asian Countries (Muscat, Bahrain, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Doha, SriLanka, etc.,)
Early Life
Sri Annavarapu Ramaswamy or Annavarapu, started learning music from a very young age under musicians such as Late Sri Maganti Jagannadham Chowdary (a native of the same village), Somavarappadu, near Eluru and later from ‘Gayaka Sarvabhowma’ Late Sri Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu of Vijayawada. His father was a Nadaswara Vidwan and brother was late Annavarapu Gopalam was a Ghatam artist at AIR. The rigorous music training in the Gurukula Sampradaya helped him to become one of the most sought after violinists in India.
Felicitations by:
Former President of India - Late Sri R.Venkata Raman
Former Prime Minister of India - Late Sri P.V.Narasimha Rao
Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu - K. Rosayya
Indian Carnatic Vocalist - M.Balamuralikrishna
Head of Avadhoota Datta Peetham - Ganapati Sachitananda Swamy (Mysore)
Indian Industrialist - T. Subbaramireddy (Visakhapatnam)
North America Telugu Association (NATA - 2014)
Awards and Honours
National Sangeeta Nataka Academy Award - Govt. of India
State Sangeeta Academy Award - Govt. of Andhra Pradesh
Hamsa Award (Govt. of Andhra Pradesh)
Pratibha Award - Telugu University, Hyderabad
Honourable Doctorate from Duke University, USA
Subbamamba Award - Madras Telugu Academy
Planjery Sankarnarayanan Memorial Award, Hyderabad
Sapthagiri Sangeetha Vidwanmani
Sangitha Sadguru Ratna by Guruparampara
TTK Award in memory of TT Krishnamachari, 2008